Tag Archives: I’m the opening act

“Hello, my name is Rene and I am new” It was the first line of my first post to a forum which would turn out to change and enrich my life, and which would be the source of about half of the friendships I actually have in the real world at this very moment.

I didn’t know it at that time, but I was already very aware of the pedigree and what OSS stood for in the digital motorcycle world that was forming in the (fairly) early days of the internet.

I treaded lightly and took all the information that was there, to heart. Tons of people that really knew their stuff, dared to go beyond the beaten path and no-one was affraid to try something new. OSS was a place away from the internet; no distractions, no things outside of what OSS meant.

It was that way from the off and everyone knew it, understood it and was very much used to it. It was “our” way, and if you didn’t understand this, you had no business on OSS.

Through the years a lot has happened with all things OSS; PP took over from Mr7/11, troops were brought in from overseas to strengthen the international relationship and many hardline moderators helped to keep the ball rolling until the website was being so flooded in spam that it was not realistically possible to keep going without major work to the system. The forum was closed and not long after, the entire website was taken offline.

Banoffee had already taken it upon him to start a Facebookpage, at the time meant to bridge the downtime of the forum, so that we could all stay in contact, but it swiftly surpassed the actual website in membership, and the longer it stayed offline, the more it was looking as if the FB-page was the actual base from which all was ran. This all to an outsider, off course, because those that were there for the journey, knew there was more to it.

Some of the members that had been part of the former website felt out of place on Facebook and Ash was the one that opened up the Proboards-forum. A welcome addition to the FB page that was already in place and plenty members of old have found their way to Ash’s pages and a lot of info has already been posted to be used across the globe.

This bring us to the Now. Firstly, I’ll have to make clear as to who has the current ownership of Oldskoolsuzuki.info ; Me. It has been signed over to me by Mr7/11, with my promise to guard and stay true to what he and PP, along with the founding members have created. I’ve surrounded myself with a few key people of the old page and the 4 of us; Banoffee, KatanaMangler, Jelly and myself, currently at the helm on FB, with Ash and Captain Chaos keeping the Pro-Boards forum running. We took it upon ourselves to revive OSS, and if you’re reading this, it’s possible that you find yourself in new but familiar surroundings.

A lot of stuff has gone on behind the scenes and more then a few people have put in their time and hard earned money, just so we could get OSS back online. We’re still busy converting old articles to be available on the new home of OSS, and photo’s are being converted as we go. The old page was so full of info, that if we have chosen to add this over time, because otherwise it would’ve taken at least another year before we had anything to show for.

We understand a lot of you will have questions, which we will all try to answer in future posts in the not to distant future. A forum is in place with the same guidelines as the old one was. Sadly, we could not save what was left of the old forum, to be usable and live on this page, nor is there the possibility to migrate Ash’s forum to this one, due to Pro-Board rules. This makes it a bit of a hassle and we’re sorry for that, but there’s little we can do.

To be fair; some of you don’t know me and will raise an eyebrow as to “why this crazy Dutchman has taken over our page” I’ve heard this more than a few times but I can tell happily tell you; I’m not taking it over, we’re not taking it over. It has been trusted to us while originally formed between a few Dutchmen and ran by people that didn’t even live in the same country, the English language was chosen to cross borders and that is exactly what it did.

In this OSS has succeeded more then anyone could ever wish for. OSS is known the world over, from the Northern most tip of Finland where they race on ice with Proboost equipped slabbies, to all the way downunder, where a fair few members race their GS’s and Katana’s and come out on top.

And then there’s all of us in between; OSS is bigger then just us, and we should treat it that way.

We welcome you into this new chapter in the OSS and ask you to be a part of it. It’s been a bit of a bumpy ride the last few years leading up to the point where we are now, but all is in place to give the place it’s second lease of life.

Go build, race, restore and modify your bikes and make sure you keep us informed about your findings.